If You Want to Destroy Your Church, Follow Liberals’ Advice

The writer leaves one item, perhaps the most important one, off the “list”: that anyone who doesn’t agree with the list (and Progressive definitions ofvwhat they mean - “truce” being code for surrender by Conservatives, for instance) should be systematically bullied, marginalized and driven into exile.

I’m, ironically for the original article being cited, Episcopal. With a long Episcopal family lineage. I was born to Episcopals, was Christened, took first Communion and was confirmed Episcopal, and will die Episcopal.

It’s my heritage. But I have only been in an Episcopal Church three times in the last 20 years (one wedding, two Christenings). I didn’t leave my Church, but it did leave me.

The cause of that was Gene Robinson. And, frankly, it wasn’t so much that he was elected a Bishop as how the Church leadership at the time not only refused to make any accomidation for those who opposed it, but also invited any one who wasn’t willing to submit to their “revised” doctrine to leave the Church. When people, people of good conscience, did, the ECUSA called in it’s lawyers to punish them and make examples of them, by stripping their congregations of their parish property.

Which was decidedly Unchristian and intolerant of a Church purporting to be ... Christian and tolerant.

Maybe I wasn’t clear, but the lock the door and rope barrier was meant figuratively. Yet there are many churches who once they get comfortable with there size do little or nothing to welcome new people in fact they almost resent new comers and spoiling the comfortable smallness of their church and especially young people are often not welcome or recruited as it would upset the status quo. At least one post on this thread talks about such an experience. I have been on threads where people have admitted they changed churches because they felt the church was getting to big, Even some Christians suffer from not wanting to be a small fish in a big pond.

One of your primary duty as a Christian is the Great Commission if your church isn’t growing then you are clearly failing to preform the work set out for you, in other words you are not producing fruit and sooner or later you get pruned.

One of the things I like about my church is there are street people and leading business movers and shakers, their are biker dudes and housewives. there are black, white, brown, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, Asian all attending the same church. Pastor is so proud as he says there isn’t hard a more segregated time of the week in America than Sunday mornings and yet visiting pastors marvel at the mix.

As Pastor Steve says if you leave Service feeling totally comfortable with yourself then he hasn’t done his job.

These are all great Christ-like things: We want an end to the culture wars.
We want a truce between science and faith.
We want to be known for what we stand for, not what we are against.
We want to ask questions that don’t have predetermined answers.
We want churches that emphasize an allegiance to the kingdom of God over an allegiance to a single political party or a single nation.
We want our LGBT friends to feel truly welcome in our faith communities.

We want to be challenged to live lives of holiness, not only when it comes to sex, but also when it comes to living simply, caring for the poor and oppressed, pursuing reconciliation, engaging in creation care and becoming peacemakers.

But they ALL MUST be backed by sound Biblical doctrine!

“becoming peacemakers.”

Peace is not something that can be attained without struggle, and generally armed struggle. This is because peace is not a permanent condition, but an interval. It is the interval between the last time we kicked evil’s butt, and the next time evil attacks. And there will always be a next time, right until the last trump.

Most often the actual peacemaker is the soldier using weapons to kill the minions of evil, and the weakling who blathers about appeasing evil is nothing more than a useful idiot whose efforts serve only to run up the butcher’s bill.

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